A shame the person who's number 1 stops that episode potentionally being repeated. Yet another of the scarce number of surviving pre-April 76 episodes that we won't see on TV
Re: the "new look" chart countdown. I understand why they attempted this method of showing it, as the charts do take up a lot of the show and you just want to get to the next performance. Seems strange to me though that they chose a method which not only obscures the video on screen, but gets the presenter to talk over it too. Vertically scrolling text at the bottom of the screen without a voiceover would make more sense to me.
The absurdity of suggesting improvements for the on-screen graphics of a 30 year old programme is not lost on me.
Personally I still prefer the 'classic' way of doing the countdown, i.e. how it was done for most editions from 1980-91, though the countdown will take even longer with The Wizard than it did with Yellow Pearl, as each chart position remains on screen for slightly longer in order to fit with the music.
I can see the benefits of running the charts over a video, and it's strange how in 1991 once they'd worked out they could do it this way, they did it for a few months and then dumped the 40-11 countdown altogether in the October revamp, which I found really annoying, before bringing it back again at some point in 1992.
There was quite a change in producers in 1991 though which might account for why the way things were done changed so much, Paul Ciani left in April due to ill health (he died later in the year), Michael Hurll then took over for a few months, then Stan Appel took over. I think the 40-2 chart over a video was introduced during the time Hurll was in charge?
Would be interesting to see how the 1991 revamp would have gone if Paul Ciani hadn't fallen ill, it seems most of the bad ideas (no miming, the presenters) were Stan Appel's doing.
The opening link on yesterday's BBC4 episode was very dodgy and abrupt, was there some editing going on there?
I've seen the original version of this, and not especially. We lost the graphic transition from the titles to the studio for whatever reason (presumably it failed the modern day test for flashing images?) and hence the theme tune was ever so slightly ahead. But we only lost a couple of frames and Simes' intro was exactly that - as for the next few months we usually get the first song introduced in voice over.
Of course, tonight's episode is from ten years to the week after the first episode that was repeated in this run from April 1976. Ten years' worth of episodes! Didn't think it'd last ten weeks.
It seems confusing because BBC4 are listing the 3/4/86 edition for both tonight and next Thursday for some reason. I don't know if they're expecting tonight's prom to overrun and it potentionally not be shown tonight, or if they really are going to show it 2 weeks on the trot for some reason, it's all very bizarre. It's not as if it's a particularly remarkable episode, apart from the new titles & music (which they don't make a big deal of during the episode anyway), so I'm not sure why they'd want to show it twice.
It does also mark the 10 year anniverisary of the BBC4 repeats, with them starting in April 1976, though we've lost about 30% of the episodes along the way, initially due to wiping for the first 18 months, then banned presenters (and a banned act on a couple of occasions) thereaftter.
It does also mark the 10 year anniverisary of the BBC4 repeats, with them starting in April 1976, though we've lost about 30% of the episodes along the way, initially due to wiping for the first 18 months, then banned presenters (and a banned act on a couple of occasions) thereaftter.
BBC 4 have actually only been showing Top of the Pops for 7 years, since 2011, and the reason for getting to 1986 within just 7 years is because they have recently doubled the normal showings to 2 per week (instead of 1), meaning they get through a year's worth of episodes in 6 months, rather than a year.
BBC 4 have actually only been showing Top of the Pops for 7 years, since 2011, and the reason for getting to 1986 within just 7 years is because they have recently doubled the normal showings to 2 per week (instead of 1), meaning they get through a year's worth of episodes in 6 months, rather than a year.
I know they've been showing it for only 7 years, I meant they've shown exactly 10 years worth of episodes, which I'm pretty sure you knew is what I meant. Don't nit pick.
